BigRedDog wrote:Thibs said he was happy with Randles shot??? hopefully this is just for public sake and in the future they change how it goes down. The ball should have been in Brunsons hand. One of the ugliest shot sequence I have ever seen.
"Tom Thibodeau didn’t regret the final shot of regulation. In fact, he was happy with the shot despite Julius Randle’s baseline fadeaway failing to hit iron."
Here is an odd take from a not Randle-lover lol: I thought both the Randle post ups and last regulation shot were OK from a tactical perspective; they were definitely ugly to fail from an execution perspective. Knicks do only have 1 better offensive option in Brunson and he was banged up and every defender the Bulls could through at him was a fairly big guy, and Caruso was guarding him at 6'5" and he is a very good defender, last 3point ice skating routine aside.
You switch, switch and suddenly Randle is at top of key with Caruso on him at an advantage. Chicago NEEDS to double - as they did constantly - and Jules needs to make the right reads. I don't know if he really did that in the last minutes of regulation but he is in his spot.
The last shot? His fav side is cleared out and he got an open look. Fadeaway not the best type of shot you want but he got it.
Randle makes that fadeaway and everyone is a genius.
Last but not least: Coaches and teams NEED to put their best players in these situations. It is a win or tie (or sometimes lose) situation, and if you only go to Brunson EVERY game that is close - and there have been more than 2 games recently where Brunson failed at his last minute shots too - then you are doing a disservice to your team long term.
The team can't NOT give the ball to Brunson, RJ, Randle for those types of possessions, especially when they are doing well offensively, and Randle was. Those guys NEED to be in those situations and fail a lot to be able to get better and then not fail when it really counts - like play-in games or hopefully playoff games.